| Well thats the rumor from GamesIndustry atleast and well it was pretty much the hands down fact that everyone knew was coming in the back of their minds. While the margin they discuss was in british pounds and over there prices are alot more widely spread, with the Xbox and HD DVD being £339 ($640 US), and the PS3 at £399 ($750 US). This is no small amount of margin i mean with the Xbox360 already out with a wealth of games to be released by that time and if they do this as well as bundling the hddvd drive you essentially ahve a ps3 killer. In the us with tighter pricing constraints the difference might not be the example 110$ difference but should still show itself. |
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While this isn’t in any way a fact, many have seen this swing coming not just to coutner the ps3 but also for the sheer fact that the Microsoft team spent alot of time doing a battle plan on how to get costs down as fast as possible on their nextgen console. Towards the end of 2006 closer to the ps3′s launch they will be moving to the much better 65nm production platform for their CPU’s in their first big move to cut costs.
The way i see it is Microsoft are smart guys, they had this planned from day 1 and it was a smart plan. There are 2 ways they can play there cost reduction. One is that they can try to lower cost and maintain the current feature set on the core and pro units, or they can lower their cost and use the lowered manufacturing costs to add features to the units for the same or close to the same price. Yes this means no reduction in loss per unit immediately but it does allow them to effectively release the console and combat the ps3 for a much lower loss per unit margin. With the PS3 said to be loosing close to 500$ per unit they arent going to be cutting prices any soon. But you have Microsoft already working on their first cost cutting move (65nm) around the same time as the ps3 launch. So in my opinion they will either use this cost cutting to start reducing their loss per unit or they will use it to bolster their included peripherals (HD bigger on premium and a small HD on the core perhaps?).
Considering Microsoft isn’t loosing as much per unit as Sony is technically the race to reduce cost could technically start this holiday season forward. The question is, is Microsoft racing to reduce cost and come to profit as soon as possible or are they going to use there prelaunch cost reductions to produce a even more killer combo package for the same price to bring even more people to the 360 rather than the ps3.
Source: Inhouse and Engadget
John Woo is known for majorly action packed fight seens seemless fighting, action flowing well and the StrangleHold is no different. With sliding over tables and pushing doors open automatically the game itself looks to be shaping up to be an awesome game.
And you ever notice after fight seens in these action movies the scene is basically 99% destroyed well from what we’ve seen so far this as well has held true to the game as well. Stranglehold is going to be an amazing thing to see, an action packed adventure packed with fast pace shooting, swinging from chandelers. Oh and don’t forget bullettime, something that should make the action packed cinematic style fights even more impressive.
Source: TeamXbox
Ok I’ll admit the #1 game I have been waiting to come is Gears of War i mean come on the graphics and gameplay stand to be hands down a “killer app”. But the funny part is how certain games that have amazing potential are going unnoticed. This is the case in Army of Two, i talked to a few people and few had heard of the game until i showed them the recently posted TeamXbox preview of the game. It wasn’t shown at E3 except in a closed demo room with a few press reporters to check it out. But from what i’ve read so far it’s shaping up to be an awesome experience.
While GoW stands to change the way we play via the pop and shoot technique, Army of Two is standing to relaunch the world of co-op play, sure co-op is great we all love blasting through levels of halo2 (and halo 3 in 2007 :)) but the fact is it’s basically just another player playing side by side with you which is great but it doesn’t really vary much. As i said Army of Two stands to change all that. In single player your co-op players is a super smart very… well… snotty character that even mouths off when you give him orders. And he has a memory if you screw up a task like a callout for a sniper shot then next time he might be reluctant to help out without some ranting on your part. Oh wait didn’t i mention this is all voice controlled? YEP VOICE CONTROLLED, you actually talk to the AI character but not in gay 1990′s voiceover you tell him what to do and argue back at him etc and he responds… doing sniping countdowns etc. He even has a conscience supposedly during the demo that was seen they tried to tell him to shoot a non-combatant and he blatantly refused.
This with the added limping along once he gets shot and you have to give him a shoulder and giving each other legs up to get to higher locations and doing 2 person rope rappeling should make for an awesome new experience. The graphics from what we have heard so far are awesome, don’t know if they are Gears of war quality yet because we dont have any photo’s from what we here so far it sounds like its gonna be great! One thing that had me grinning was both interviews TX and GS mentioned the last level when they are on a bobbing and weaving cargo ship thats sinking and as it swings to the side crates, gas barrels and aircraft start sliding towards you and you have to avoid them to reach your exit point a helicopter at the aft of the ship… yes i said aircraft lol they said that made their adrenaline get pumping. The sad part … 2007 release :(
For the Full Review from the Closed Session check out TeamXbox or Gamespot
Well a big announcement from Sony at E3 was that the online service would be free, Major Nelson noticed something as well as many other onlookers a giant Missing piece of the puzzle from there presentation, they don’t mention a single word of multiplayer gaming for the “basic service”.
The thing is they made it seem that their online would be completely free, yet here they have it “basic service” with no mention of online gameplaying. So looks as if unlike what the ps3 fanboys wanted everyone to believe the ps3 online service will be the setup similar to the 360 with basic not including gameplay, so ha ha ha. The truth shall set you free sony!
Source: MajorNelson and Youtube
This game impressed da*n near everyone that saw it we had people compairing gameplay footage of Gears Of War to CG graphics of “the other guy”. Mouths just instinctively drop when you see this game in actual gameplay, even if in the end it shapes up to be half of what we see so far it would be an awesome game! The game has what i can only say to be just enough gore to be majorly fun! I mean who doesn’t want to run up to a friend on XBL and cut through them with a saw attached to the end of our big gun and see the blood and guts fly out?
One thing that i think was the nicest addition was the most suddle, the game is meant for realism and the small thing i’m talking about is going into cover, in most games they flip into cover like a graceful bird or something, hate to say this when your in war and going crazy no one is like that you slam into the wall flip around and start blind fireing. In Gears of War this is exactly how it goes, you slam into cover with an Umph and can immediately start blind fireing if you want or hop or roll over to a new cover destination.
It’s already been deamed a new style of fighter, it’s not quite strategy like rainbox six, and it’s not a shoot and run like halo, which are both emensely fun. Gears of war is something new to itself, its a cover and pop, the game relys heavily on cover, and moving from cover to cover and shooting from cover. But it still requires a great deal of teamwork in multiplayers as they had a closed session match of 4×4 and the team that stuck together always won.
Another interesting concept is how death works in Gears of War if you get shot and hurt really bad you dont “die” you basically get knee capped or hurt bad enough to hit the ground. At this point if your on a decent team they can come over and try to help you up and get you back into the game.. god for matches that don’t allow for respawn. But if a enemy is clsoer than a friend he can basically stomp you to death or shoot you in the ehad to finish you off! Talk about bad a$$.
No new news on when the game is going to be released but from what we hear a holiday release of 2006 is most likely. As for the game developers itself they just keep saying “Emergence Day” lol as if that tells us anything.
PS: I forgot to let you know, in multiplayer you get to play as either the good human guys or the evil ones hehe so partys on!
Source: Inhouse, IGN, TeamXbox Hands On and GearsOfWar.com
